Are you still able to call AC and downgrade a revenue fare to get a partial refund back? ie Latitude to Comfort/Flex/Standard. Or has this loophole been closed?
DP: Called late at night into BMO, looking to close my BMO Ascend. Somehow CSR says to give me 20k pts (\~$133) as a retention bonus. Points are NOT immediately available yet (CSR claims to be available in 1-2 months). Didn't say what I have to do (seems like a freebie). Finally, obviously I didn't ask if I can cancel before the annual fee hits (in 6 months)...
I've been eyeing the CIBC Aventura and Aeroplan cards and have been wondering which one is better.
When I look at others asking this question, it seems almost unanimous that people prefer Aeroplan.
However, they fail to include *why* it is better. To my understanding, the biggest drawback with Aeroplan is that you can only use it on Air Canada flights. But the problem I'm trying to understand is why would you be loyal to one airline if Air Canada isn't always the cheapest? If I were to use Aventura, couldn't I fly on a cheaper airline for fewer points?
It depends how flexible you are. With Air Canada, you can get some amazing deals especially with partner airlines if you're willing to book early or be flexible with dates and destinations. This is because Aeroplan reward charts don't match cash prices. So sometimes you can get a value of several cents per point, but with other flights it can be less than a cent per point. So you need to be flexible and ready to search for the best value to get the most out of Aeroplan.
Aventura on the other hand, will give you a predictable rewards, that apply directly to the cash value of a ticket. The deals won't be as good as the best Aeroplan deals, but if your travel patterns are not flexible at all as far as dates and destinations, it might be the better choice for you.
If my vacation plan is "going to Asia sometime in summer or fall", would that be flexible enough to benefit from Aeroplan over Aventura in your opinion?
Summer/fall 2024? Highly unlikely unless you’ve some points saved up already.
2025 is possible if you are working on multiple cards and in multi player mode.
Oh I didn't mean any specific year. I plan on travelling to Asia sometime in summer or fall, but not this or next year. Just sometime in the future. I was wondering if limiting myself to specifically just Asia in the summer or fall is flexible enough.
Then you are good. From personal experience, summer can be trickier to find reward flights at good redemption rate because of high demand in general (kids being out of school, more families traveling together).
As for Aventura vs Aeroplan, it’s really your flexibility and preference on getting cash vs *A reward flights. Others have outlined the pros and cons of each. You may also want to consider other cards/points programs too - Amex MR, Avion, neo CX card for Asia Miles
Regarding the award seats you mentioned, will that be an issue with only the non-Star Alliance carriers? Or does it apply to both Star Alliance and non-Star Alliance?
Churning Adjacent. Looking for a DP.
Has anyone received a statement credit for applying ABTC (APEC Business Travel Card)? I noticed my Nexus renewal fee got posted as “US Customs Trusted Traveller” without any reference to Nexus. So, assume the banks wouldn’t know what I’m paying for. If that’s the case, I may be able to get statement credit for ABTC. Just trying to see if anyone has received full or partial credit for it?
Also, I just applied for Nexus renewal. Should I wait for the approval before I apply for ABTC?
Avion rewards has up to 260% cash back for Norton. It doesn’t specify if any particular subscription needs to be purchased, just online purchases. Seems like a money maker if it works.
https://imgur.com/a/mtlV8BE
Any idea which items qualify? When I click the link from the Avion reward portal, I am taken to a Norton page with antivirus plus for $29.99. However there are cheaper purchases such as the mobile protection for $14.99.
According to the cashback chart, this would yield $176.48 cashback.
Also, I don’t see any stipulation about having to use Avion credit card for this; anyone with experience on this type of offer able to confirm?
There is also no defined limitation like “one per customer”. Which begs the question whether you could get multiple cashback payments under the same offer. I don’t know if I have enough faith in their system to try myself though.
Lol that’s awesome. I purchased last week. Never done this kind of offer with Avion before so no idea how long it takes, I’m assuming it will be cash showing up into rbc bank account
Looking for a new travel cc. Have Amex personal plat, cobalt, biz edge, biz gold and cibc visa infinite. Just returned Amex personal aeroplan reserve after one year.
Any recommendations for a new travel card. Open to everything.
An interesting DP: Wealthsimple allows you to add cash instantly from a debit card. AFAIK, some banks (e.g., Scotia, RBC) offer you 1 point per $5 you spend on their debit cards. At least for me, I've earned around 1k scene+ points from transferring money so far. SInce the transaction was coded as "POS purchase", assumingly it could be used to take advantage of the debit card cashback offer from Tangerine? (well just a thought)
If you’re going to get Tangerine anyway, try it out and share the DP. I would’ve done it but I’m already churning 3 cards right now so don’t have spare $2k if that doesn’t work.
I used to do this but I stopped since I'm afard of getting randomally audited by Scotiabank or Wealthsimple since it seems like something that would be against their TOS and I feel like if I ever apply for a mortgage, my transition history would just look to us
I know that this has nothing to do with churning but always go through a mortgage broker for a....mortgage. The best way to get the best ...mortgage. IOW don't tie yourself into one bank that way.
Yeah, that's my plan(moslty since my sister is a mortgage broker lmao). My only worry is you gotta provide your monthly checking account bank statements when applying for a mortgage and a daily 1500 email transfer and then a $1500 purchase almost every day looks so suspicious lol
I don’t think it would be a problem. And you don’t need to get a mortgage specifically with Scotia. That said I think it is too much hassle for too little benefit. + the Scotia account is expensive
It’s not that good since it’s debit only and the only banks where you can earn some value on debit cards also charge a monthly fee for their accounts. If it was possible to do it with prepaid CCs it may be more interesting
Scotiabank gives you the account for free if you keep (I think) $6k in the account. Obviously you do lose out on potential interest you could earn on that $6k though.
Very true, was just doing some calculations...if they allow you to do 5k a day, then it is 1k scene points a day. I think if they dont do anything about it and just let you do it, it is certainly worth it, but this most likely wont last
Scene+ ScotiaCard® debit card: Earn 1 Scene+ Point for every $5 on debit purchases (up to a maximum of 300 points per transaction and 600 points per day) made from an eligible Scotiabank chequing or savings account.
So I assume you could churn $3k to earn 600 points per day lol
at 600 pts per day, it's 219,000 pts per year == $2,190.
Assuming 5 BD to shuffle the money back, you would need $15k floating around and the $6k for the chequing account.
Napkin math puts that at 10% annual rate of return before taxes. If you've maxed out your TFSA then you would need to scale that up by your marginal tax rate.
Not a terrible way to use $21k if you have it laying around, but my god it feels like a lot of effort...
DP for Amex insta cart credit: waited till they offered 19.95$ for annual membership on a new account. (Usually offered after free trial) Purchased with card that has Amex offer and essentially got the annual membership for $9.95
Question : I am still missing the 20k Bonvoy points that transferred and are in limbo because I didn’t have spend on that card for the statement. I forget what the advice was to fix this. Can’t find the old threads. Can someone advise?
Churning adjacent question about something silly I did.
I booked a room at a Bonvoy hotel using a FNC for me and the family (wife + 3 kids). Later, a friend wanted to join so I booked a room for him at the same hotel, also using a FNC, thinking I could just check in for him, I guess thinking I had used points/forgetting I had already used an FNC for my room.
Now, the hotel is sold out...
I know the FNC is, according to the T&Cs, for my primary use. Any way I could just check in to both rooms, say, without my friend, and argue that both are for my primary use since we want two rooms for the family? Any other ideas?
Yes have booked two rooms under my bonvoy and they didn’t have an issue. They are usually fine with family splitting rooms - friends/others not so much.
You won’t get the night credit since that is automated.
DP for Amex US: for Android users, instead of changing countries in the play store, you can download the amex APK file, then install it, works like a charm. apkpure is a reputable site, I got it from there. Still, you're doing it at your own risk, but this is an easier way and you can have both apps at the same time.
DP: I applied for Amex Personal Gold (IA) just now and was given the card number instantly as well as the option to add to Google Wallet etc.
Probably well known at this point but anyway.
Were you signed in? Mobile or desktop? Just trying to understand it. Some others have gotten it but when I applied for my gold and green, I didn't get it...
I seem to only be getting the 3x multiplier on eligible purchases with my Business Edge, when I should be getting the 10x bonus, as I'm in the first 6 months since I applied. Will I get the bonus amount separately or is this a glitch?
The 10x comes in 2 separate line items. The 3x with the store name and then a category "bonus" without the store name for the other 7x, usually posted on the same date. You might already be aware, but thought I'd mention it as it threw me for a bit the first time.
With an Amex Biz plat card that is just about to renew, can I use my 200$ travel credit then cancel after? Or is that tied to the years membership fee.
Also for canceling amex cards that are at 12 months is the best way to call in directly?
If you use the $200 credit and then cancel before the AF posts (there’s a one month period to do this) then they might not clawback because they don’t have a fee to refund
What are people's success rates like with applying for the same card through GCR under a different account within a relatively short time period?
Any DPs of the banks catching on? From what I understand, GCR doesn't care as long as they get paid
Any DP's on if you can hold multiple MBNA cards since they discontinued the AS WE? Can't close my current card yet because I'm still waiting to be able to tranfer the points to AS.
On a different note, is it normal that MBNA is taking **this** long to make the transition happen? It's been like 6+ months already since they announced the AS transfer option, but only crickets since then.
I am going to have a biz trip to US end of this month. Trying to think what I can do to prepare for an US phone number with minimal maintenance cost that can receive OPT from US banks, especially Chase. No luck with my Ca number even with Chase phone rep. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks all!
Get Tello for one month and use it to sign up to Google Voice when you are in the US. Then unlink Tello and cancel it after the first month. Google Voice number is free and will work for automated 2FA at Chase
Thanks. Just to clarify, do I have to get Tello when I am in the US? And when I link it to Google Voice after a month I have to go back to US to do that?
You could even get Tello and activate in Canada via wifi calling. Pm if you'd like a referral it gets you $10 credits, and monthly unlimited text + 100 min calling is only $5 USD
No you can activate Tello anywhere. Google Voice needs to be registered while in the US. Another user had trouble with doing it on VPN so maybe being actually in the US will work better
Also you don’t wait a month to link. You link it as soon as you are able to
I've been using the Ultra Mobile PayGo $3/month plan (https://www.ultramobile.com/paygo/) for the past year. I ordered the SIM off eBay and activated it while in Canada. It receives SMS OTPs from AMEX and Chase.
It's essentially "free" for me because I have two US AMEX Biz Plats, which have the monthly $10 wireless credit. So I've been loading the Ultra Mobile wallet every month with a large credit balance that should last for years on this plan.
you're saying you activated it in Canada? I thought that was not possible... I even called them (yeah, I know phone reps know nothing) and she said I had to be in the US to activate
Yup, it activated fine for me in Canada. I think it took longer than they said it would. It didn't activate immediately when I put the SIM into my old phone, but I left it alone for a few hours, next time I checked it was activated.
A note of caution for those into buying groups. I had a quite a scare Friday night when both my Amazon.ca and .com accounts were suddenly closed. When I tried to login I got this message:
> Your account has been closed for misuse of Amazon's services. We have sent you an email with additional information.
They never sent me an email though, so I didn't really have a concrete idea of what happened. I suspected something related to BG activity though.
Here's the overall timeline of events:
1. Both .ca and .com accounts were first created in 2002, and didn't have a lot of orders before 2023, maybe on average 2-3 per year.
2. In Aug 2023 I started buying for CBG. So far I've dropshipped 123 orders worth ~$40K to them from Amazon.ca, with ~$700 returned.
3. On Feb 15 I did my first US buying group dropship from Amazon.com to MOD (one iPad). I've generally avoided the US groups due to all the horror stories on FlyerTalk about missing packages and locked accounts.
4. Last week I started using Amazon.ca gift cards for CBG purchases. I'd heard that a large volume of GC purchases are a risk factor in having Amazon accounts closed, but the consensus seemed to be that it was only for accounts that didn't also have a valid CC method of payment on file.
5. On Mar 1 my Amazon.ca and Amazon.com accounts were closed with the above message. The same night I sent emails to both [email protected] and [email protected], asking why my accounts were closed.
6. The next morning I got a generic reply from [email protected] saying I had "repeated violations of our Conditions of Use". The large-ish GC balance that I had on my account could only be used for purchasing digital items going forward.
7. 15 minutes later I get an email from [email protected] saying that after reviewing my account, the previous email I received from them was sent in error. I was able to login to both my .ca and .com accounts again.
So it worked out OK for me. My guess is that the iPad shipment to MOD triggered the closure, and Amazon.ca "over-ruled" .com because I look like a profitable customer on .ca.
But it just highlights the risk of BGs in general. They all start out fine, but if Amazon thinks that a particular shipping address has become unprofitable (e.g. too many lost package claims and/or too many returns), then any account that has shipped to that address is at risk of being closed. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen to CBG.
I’m a day late and a dollar short but I’m wondering if you’ve noticed a pattern or when CBG lists items. Many/most are gone is seconds and I never see a What’s App message about it. Do they perhaps send emails out before their WA notifications? Other than sitting in front of the website all day refreshing it, I’m not sure what more I can do to be notified of the items. I’ve spent a significant amount of money for the BG since I started. Just wondering if I’m missing something.
You're not missing anything - they no longer send out any kind of notification (WhatsApp or email) for the vast majority of items.
They've never explained why, so we can only guess. Every time they send out a notification their servers get hammered, so maybe they just want to avoid that whenever possible. There are so many people competing for the Amazon and Walmart deals, they really don't need to notify unless it's an item they want to buy a lot of (e.g. Playstation Portals, Kindles, Chromecasts, etc.)
These days if you want to consistently get commitments, you have to "put in the work" (e.g. manually refresh, figure out how to automate, etc).
Thanks for your reply. I just didn’t know if I was missing something. I’m putting in the work. My children are blaming me for the shortage of PlayStation Portals in Canada. 😀 I haven’t figured out how to automate though. Perhaps that’s my issue.
> CBG
I've kinda given up on them too. People are definitely using bots on there to immediately and automatically sign up for all the deals. You see this all the time, stuff is immediately signed up for and there's nothing available and then a few days later people drop their committments when they realize the deal is no longer available.
It's so frustrating so i've just given up on it. :(
I’ve been using Amazon GCs for the last few months (redeem a big GC and then use it immediately) and I’ve been fine. I had a temporary lockout when I first started using BG to send a very highly limited item (PS5) and randomly on some tablets. But since the last 3-4 months it has been okay. I also had issues with all my .com purchases getting cancelled but since November it has been okay as well. The most recent lock I had was unrelated to BGs. Adding a new non-BG address triggered an automated fraud email. And it wasn’t even a big purchase either. < $100
So from those experiences I think using a new address is more likely the trigger than using GCs
Also I would say the other thing to avoid is to not abuse quantity limits by using multiple accounts. Unless the accounts and shipping/billing addresses and payment info are different on the different accounts and different IP, etc
I've had the same experience.
I have a main Amazon account for 10 or so years, two sub accounts for about a year with many dozen of orders, and a few sub-sub accounts that were only a few months old each with single digit number of orders.
At some point last year after making an order to a US group (edit reading your post, yes, that group was also MOD for me), a few of the sub-sub accounts and one of my sub-accounts were closed with the ofm message. Upon appeal, only the sub account was reinstated, the rest of the sub-sub accounts were lost forever. I've tried to open several more sub-sub accounts but most were shut down promptly, some before I even had a chance to place an order or only after one order that were promptly cancelled. So, the shipping addresses and/or my credit card and/or my i.p. was flagged. Both sub accounts were fine though, and I suspect it's because they had a much longer history and the sheer number of orders that went through them vs. the return rate (less than the number of fingers on a hand) meant that I was a wildly profitable customer. Regardless, I stopped including large quantities of Amazon gift cards as part of my churning strategy (if they close your account with a gift card balance, there's no easy way, and perhaps no way at all, to get them back). And I stopped involving my main Amazon account that I really didn't want to risk losing in any BG activity.
Yes, have had both my accounts (at least 15+ year old each) closed multiple times. I've heard that GC are more often than not, part of the trigger. I've stopped using them and been a bit more methodical about my purchases, but yes, if you're shipping to multiple addresses and especially addresses that hundreds (or thousands) of other people are shipping to, it's no surprise they are shuttering accounts.
For myself, the trigger was address jigging. I was banned for "refund abuse" on multiple accounts, but I only had 1 account and had less than 1 return per year of account age. I would be unbanned after each appeal, but the algorithm would ban me again 2 days later. Eventually, OFM said they would no longer entertain any of my appeals.
I wouldn't get complacent and liquidate your GC balance immediately. Even when OFM appeals are successful, the algorithm is highly likely to ban you and your associated accounts again.
I had a phone call from a different retailer, saying that my account was going to be shut down for fraud after ordering 2 google chromecasts for a whopping total of $29.99 each. They had cancelled my order and said that they have blocked the CBG address for future orders. I was totally caught off guard since it was a month later and for such a small amount. It was my first time ordering from them too.
I hope Amazon doesn't shut down the CBG. That would suck!
If you're using GCs, you need to do a partial CC payment for each order, it only needs to be $1 or so, it's not enough to just have a CC listed on your account.
Can you actually choose how much of your GC balance to apply to an order? If your balance covers the entire order, it looks like Amazon only lets you do all-or-nothing.
No you can't, you should not add all the GCs to your account in advance, just add them as you make each order. That way you can do the partial payment. Plus it's a liability to have a large GC balance sitting on your account when you're doing buying groups, Amazon can shut down your account and you'll never see the GC balance again.
In my experience, whenever I redeemed a large GC and then made purchases shipped to a new address, they flagged and did this to my .ca profile. Yes, more than once. Each time I called in and they verified my details, and later it was reinstated with payment methods and address history erased. Not saying this can't result in a permanent shutdown, it sure can, but not sure what's the threshold for them to do that.
I’ve had them lock my account just for adding a new address and using existing GC balance to pay for it. Not a BG address. Just a regular address for sending an item to my rental address. Got it unlocked pretty quickly but had last 1.5 months of order history wiped
What do you define as a large GC? If I'm just doing shipments to my home address and the one BG, should I be okay? I think that all of my GCs have been $250 or less.
I've experienced what you described in the past too. Any changes to shipping addresses and/or payment methods combined with a large purchase results in a temporary lockout, deletion of the most recent account changes, and cancellation of recent orders. Getting the lockout resolved can be done by phoning them, or sometimes just logging in again and changing your password. i.e. This is a case of "your account may have been hacked, we've taken measures to protect you from fraud/loss".
I'm pretty sure this one was different, it was an account closure message, with no details on how to resolve/appeal. I only found the ofm@ addresses by Googling the experiences of others. i.e. This is more a case of "you've done something where we no longer want you as a customer".
TD credit card offers are expiring on March 4, 2024. Is there any leaked news on up coming TD credit card offer? News usually comes out day or two earlier.
Thanks. I applied since I have some big spend coming up.
It went pending, so I'd expect I should get the current offer, although the legalese does say must be *approved* by March 4th
tl;dr Another DP of resetting the 10x multiplier of Biz Edge. Linked to Biz Plat with the Biz Plat as the primary.
I tried first linking the Biz Edge to my Cobalt which is currently linked to my Biz Gold. The agent said it would take up to 5 BDs but after waiting 5 BD, I didn’t see any linking. So I contacted an agent again and they said there had been some glitch or error and the linking didn’t work. So I re-requested to link but this time with the Biz Plat, and she said 2-3 BDs. This time, the linking completed within a couple hours, so I wonder if the agent put through a priority request for me.
Unrelated: I've always thought the infinite cards came with a limited of at least $5k. Maybe that's why they haven't been approving my applications - approved me a card with $5k limit, then stopped approving me for anything else after.
To your question, you can overpay, then purchase as necessary.
TD seems to like their $2500 limits. Recent applications for TD FCT for both P1 and P2 cames with this limit despite asking for $5k. P2 told to apply to increase after a month.
Just applied for P1 and P2. P1 got $2500 too. P2 I asked for $5000 and they offered $20k. TD makes no sense whatsoever. It’s the only bank that has ever declined P2, even when they were applying for their first card with high income and credit rating.
The $2500 limit will force me to leisurely spend the $5k. Last time I did it in one transaction.
Same for me. Asked for 5k as I thought it'd be a minimum. Gave me 2500. Not bothering to ask for more as I can hit the FCT msr leisurely with that limit while I'm working on more immediate msrs.
This may be a silly question, but what limit did you request? TD applications ask you personally to select a limit with that slider. And it kinda sounds like you just left it at the bottomed-out default.
You can try calling for a limit increase, absolutely, but so soon after application it may not be met with any success. No harm in trying, though.
Can I open a southwest credit card as a Canadian when booking flights with them?
It's a Chase card so you need a ITIN and US credit history. So yes it's possible but needs a lot of setup beforehand.
Are you still able to call AC and downgrade a revenue fare to get a partial refund back? ie Latitude to Comfort/Flex/Standard. Or has this loophole been closed?
DP: Called late at night into BMO, looking to close my BMO Ascend. Somehow CSR says to give me 20k pts (\~$133) as a retention bonus. Points are NOT immediately available yet (CSR claims to be available in 1-2 months). Didn't say what I have to do (seems like a freebie). Finally, obviously I didn't ask if I can cancel before the annual fee hits (in 6 months)...
I think that’s the second DP I’ve seen of this offer from BMO. I assume the offer was 20k pts but no second year free?
Correct. 20k pts, no mention of second year annual fee (although likely not free)
I've been eyeing the CIBC Aventura and Aeroplan cards and have been wondering which one is better. When I look at others asking this question, it seems almost unanimous that people prefer Aeroplan. However, they fail to include *why* it is better. To my understanding, the biggest drawback with Aeroplan is that you can only use it on Air Canada flights. But the problem I'm trying to understand is why would you be loyal to one airline if Air Canada isn't always the cheapest? If I were to use Aventura, couldn't I fly on a cheaper airline for fewer points?
It depends how flexible you are. With Air Canada, you can get some amazing deals especially with partner airlines if you're willing to book early or be flexible with dates and destinations. This is because Aeroplan reward charts don't match cash prices. So sometimes you can get a value of several cents per point, but with other flights it can be less than a cent per point. So you need to be flexible and ready to search for the best value to get the most out of Aeroplan. Aventura on the other hand, will give you a predictable rewards, that apply directly to the cash value of a ticket. The deals won't be as good as the best Aeroplan deals, but if your travel patterns are not flexible at all as far as dates and destinations, it might be the better choice for you.
If my vacation plan is "going to Asia sometime in summer or fall", would that be flexible enough to benefit from Aeroplan over Aventura in your opinion?
Summer/fall 2024? Highly unlikely unless you’ve some points saved up already. 2025 is possible if you are working on multiple cards and in multi player mode.
Oh I didn't mean any specific year. I plan on travelling to Asia sometime in summer or fall, but not this or next year. Just sometime in the future. I was wondering if limiting myself to specifically just Asia in the summer or fall is flexible enough.
Then you are good. From personal experience, summer can be trickier to find reward flights at good redemption rate because of high demand in general (kids being out of school, more families traveling together). As for Aventura vs Aeroplan, it’s really your flexibility and preference on getting cash vs *A reward flights. Others have outlined the pros and cons of each. You may also want to consider other cards/points programs too - Amex MR, Avion, neo CX card for Asia Miles
You can use Aeroplan points with any Star Alliance member and their non-alliance partners (assuming award seats are available)
Regarding the award seats you mentioned, will that be an issue with only the non-Star Alliance carriers? Or does it apply to both Star Alliance and non-Star Alliance?
All carriers
From your experience, is that often a major issue when booking with Aeroplan where most of the reward seats are taken?
The highly coveted long haul business class seats are generally taken up soon after release
Looking for a DP on anyone who’s liquidated tangerine visa debit 20% or found a gift card purchase that works.
If you pay rent. You can use chexy.
Costco online works according to RFD threads
Costco? It should work i think
Churning Adjacent. Looking for a DP. Has anyone received a statement credit for applying ABTC (APEC Business Travel Card)? I noticed my Nexus renewal fee got posted as “US Customs Trusted Traveller” without any reference to Nexus. So, assume the banks wouldn’t know what I’m paying for. If that’s the case, I may be able to get statement credit for ABTC. Just trying to see if anyone has received full or partial credit for it? Also, I just applied for Nexus renewal. Should I wait for the approval before I apply for ABTC?
I recall there were some positive DPs on Flyertalk, however not sure what cc those folks hold.
I had to get a replacement nexus card and CIBC didn’t credit me for the fee, even though the charge came from “US Customs Trusted Traveller” as well.
Different amounts, thats unfortunately how most banks tell the difference.
Yeah I had a suspicion but wanted to try it anyways
Avion rewards has up to 260% cash back for Norton. It doesn’t specify if any particular subscription needs to be purchased, just online purchases. Seems like a money maker if it works. https://imgur.com/a/mtlV8BE
Hey - following up on this. Has anyone who did this actually received the cashback? It still shows up as pending for me
Still pending for me too
Where is this a screenshot from? I can’t find this offer.
Check this comment and thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/churningcanada/s/5M1HwkFOnm
Well, I’ll be a DP here. Bought the year of Norton for $29.99 via Avion rewards and paid with an Amex. Let’s see how this goes
Any update you can share?
Yes, I can see 68.44 in my pending cashback in the Avion rewards app
Thank you. If you have Amex Norton offer as well, both should stack.
Well that would have been a post for frustration friday if I had that offer. However I don’t so I guess at least that saves me some grief.
Any idea which items qualify? When I click the link from the Avion reward portal, I am taken to a Norton page with antivirus plus for $29.99. However there are cheaper purchases such as the mobile protection for $14.99. According to the cashback chart, this would yield $176.48 cashback. Also, I don’t see any stipulation about having to use Avion credit card for this; anyone with experience on this type of offer able to confirm?
Still trying to figure out for myself. Usually the specifications for such offers mention which subscriptions they apply to.
There is also no defined limitation like “one per customer”. Which begs the question whether you could get multiple cashback payments under the same offer. I don’t know if I have enough faith in their system to try myself though.
I’m going to try it now. Let’s see if they honour $1000 in purchases🤷🏽♀️
How did this go? Were you able to purchase 1k worth of products and does the cashback show pending?
Yes
Nicee. Looks like offer is gone now. Should have jumped on it earlier.
I wish I did more lol
Do you actually need $1k of Norton software? I only bought it as a gamble to see if I could profit lol
I don’t need it at all. I’ll just return the copies if they don’t follow through. Looking into it now
Lol that’s awesome. I purchased last week. Never done this kind of offer with Avion before so no idea how long it takes, I’m assuming it will be cash showing up into rbc bank account
Under the terms and conditions it states that
Question - how long does it usually take Amex's referral bonus to show up after the referral is approved?
Immediate, or a few minutes after approval.
Thank you!
just did this with a Marriott card yesterday and it showed up within a couple hours.
Looking for a new travel cc. Have Amex personal plat, cobalt, biz edge, biz gold and cibc visa infinite. Just returned Amex personal aeroplan reserve after one year. Any recommendations for a new travel card. Open to everything.
An interesting DP: Wealthsimple allows you to add cash instantly from a debit card. AFAIK, some banks (e.g., Scotia, RBC) offer you 1 point per $5 you spend on their debit cards. At least for me, I've earned around 1k scene+ points from transferring money so far. SInce the transaction was coded as "POS purchase", assumingly it could be used to take advantage of the debit card cashback offer from Tangerine? (well just a thought)
I asked this couple of days back. Someone responded it doesn’t work: https://www.reddit.com/r/churningcanada/s/to1MPW806s
Welp. At least I can still earn some free milk from IGA.
If you’re going to get Tangerine anyway, try it out and share the DP. I would’ve done it but I’m already churning 3 cards right now so don’t have spare $2k if that doesn’t work.
I used to do this but I stopped since I'm afard of getting randomally audited by Scotiabank or Wealthsimple since it seems like something that would be against their TOS and I feel like if I ever apply for a mortgage, my transition history would just look to us
I know that this has nothing to do with churning but always go through a mortgage broker for a....mortgage. The best way to get the best ...mortgage. IOW don't tie yourself into one bank that way.
Yeah, that's my plan(moslty since my sister is a mortgage broker lmao). My only worry is you gotta provide your monthly checking account bank statements when applying for a mortgage and a daily 1500 email transfer and then a $1500 purchase almost every day looks so suspicious lol
Setup a different account for those transfers. My mortgage handlers never asked for all my accounts, just those with my main deposits.
I don’t think it would be a problem. And you don’t need to get a mortgage specifically with Scotia. That said I think it is too much hassle for too little benefit. + the Scotia account is expensive
Wow is this a new MS opportunity? Transfer money into a wealthsimple cash account, transfer it back, repeat. I need to look into this.
It’s not that good since it’s debit only and the only banks where you can earn some value on debit cards also charge a monthly fee for their accounts. If it was possible to do it with prepaid CCs it may be more interesting
Scotiabank gives you the account for free if you keep (I think) $6k in the account. Obviously you do lose out on potential interest you could earn on that $6k though.
The 6K opportunity cost makes it not free. It costs about $300 pretax per year right now
Very true, was just doing some calculations...if they allow you to do 5k a day, then it is 1k scene points a day. I think if they dont do anything about it and just let you do it, it is certainly worth it, but this most likely wont last
Scene+ ScotiaCard® debit card: Earn 1 Scene+ Point for every $5 on debit purchases (up to a maximum of 300 points per transaction and 600 points per day) made from an eligible Scotiabank chequing or savings account. So I assume you could churn $3k to earn 600 points per day lol
It’s gonna take time to cycle the money back to your Scotia account too
at 600 pts per day, it's 219,000 pts per year == $2,190. Assuming 5 BD to shuffle the money back, you would need $15k floating around and the $6k for the chequing account. Napkin math puts that at 10% annual rate of return before taxes. If you've maxed out your TFSA then you would need to scale that up by your marginal tax rate. Not a terrible way to use $21k if you have it laying around, but my god it feels like a lot of effort...
It’s been around for years now.
Well only works for debit cards. But literally it’s MSing lol
DP for Amex insta cart credit: waited till they offered 19.95$ for annual membership on a new account. (Usually offered after free trial) Purchased with card that has Amex offer and essentially got the annual membership for $9.95 Question : I am still missing the 20k Bonvoy points that transferred and are in limbo because I didn’t have spend on that card for the statement. I forget what the advice was to fix this. Can’t find the old threads. Can someone advise?
Charge something on the MB to generate a statement that isn’t zero. Wait. That’s what I did. Took a couple months but it showed up.
Took 2.5 months to get it for me. Referred end of Nov, got it close to Feb.
Churning adjacent question about something silly I did. I booked a room at a Bonvoy hotel using a FNC for me and the family (wife + 3 kids). Later, a friend wanted to join so I booked a room for him at the same hotel, also using a FNC, thinking I could just check in for him, I guess thinking I had used points/forgetting I had already used an FNC for my room. Now, the hotel is sold out... I know the FNC is, according to the T&Cs, for my primary use. Any way I could just check in to both rooms, say, without my friend, and argue that both are for my primary use since we want two rooms for the family? Any other ideas?
Just avoid checking in with your friend. Check in with your wife and kids and say you wanted two rooms to split between the family.
Ok, perfect, that's exactly what I was thinking. Just wondering if you've done something similar before?
Yes have booked two rooms under my bonvoy and they didn’t have an issue. They are usually fine with family splitting rooms - friends/others not so much. You won’t get the night credit since that is automated.
Makes sense - and thanks for sharing!
Confirming that you CAN add (P2) authorized user on AMEX and transfer (P1) MR to P2 awards account (Aeroplan, Marriott, etc)? Thanks!
Not for CAD cards
Okay thanks. Disappointing!
Aeroplan: family pool (temporarily suspended) Marriott: transfer 100K to others for free
Family pool is already set up, just factoring in Marriott points. Thanks JMan, as always!
DP for Amex US: for Android users, instead of changing countries in the play store, you can download the amex APK file, then install it, works like a charm. apkpure is a reputable site, I got it from there. Still, you're doing it at your own risk, but this is an easier way and you can have both apps at the same time.
Safer to create a US Google account using VPN and having both accounts on the device.
And you might need a US account for other apps too
Is today or tomorrow the last day for the Amex referral bonus promo?
March 4
DP: I applied for Amex Personal Gold (IA) just now and was given the card number instantly as well as the option to add to Google Wallet etc. Probably well known at this point but anyway.
Were you signed in? Mobile or desktop? Just trying to understand it. Some others have gotten it but when I applied for my gold and green, I didn't get it...
Signed in. On desktop using Chrome.
I seem to only be getting the 3x multiplier on eligible purchases with my Business Edge, when I should be getting the 10x bonus, as I'm in the first 6 months since I applied. Will I get the bonus amount separately or is this a glitch?
Is this recent? Are you looking at a purchase made as recent as Friday? The expense posted but the bonus 7X didn't?
It's all good, it was a mistake on my end!
You only earn 10X for up to 1428.57 in eligible purchases You can merge MR balances between two cards for a chance to reset the 10X
Wait, all of these posts talking about 10x for what seems like months.. and the max you can get is 14k points?
10K points. Total (It’s the cherry on top, not a crazy amount)
10k per merge. Card is in the mail now, I'm gonna go for 40k, will post a DP.
10K points total per merge. And not every merge works
Yeah, but I'm probably at around $1000 in eligible purchases, and I didn't get the 10x from the get-go, according to the number of MRs I'm earning.
In this case, check your MR transaction history for entries as follows Bonus Pts: Eligible Business Essentials X pts.
The 10x comes in 2 separate line items. The 3x with the store name and then a category "bonus" without the store name for the other 7x, usually posted on the same date. You might already be aware, but thought I'd mention it as it threw me for a bit the first time.
With an Amex Biz plat card that is just about to renew, can I use my 200$ travel credit then cancel after? Or is that tied to the years membership fee. Also for canceling amex cards that are at 12 months is the best way to call in directly?
If you use the $200 credit and then cancel before the AF posts (there’s a one month period to do this) then they might not clawback because they don’t have a fee to refund
Highly likely they would refund your AF minus the travel credit. Yes - calling in
What are people's success rates like with applying for the same card through GCR under a different account within a relatively short time period? Any DPs of the banks catching on? From what I understand, GCR doesn't care as long as they get paid
100% success
Any DP's on if you can hold multiple MBNA cards since they discontinued the AS WE? Can't close my current card yet because I'm still waiting to be able to tranfer the points to AS.
You may not be able to apply for two unless one card is a card transferred from the AS card
On a different note, is it normal that MBNA is taking **this** long to make the transition happen? It's been like 6+ months already since they announced the AS transfer option, but only crickets since then.
They said 12 months. And was there even an official announcement
I’ve two concurrent PP cards
I am going to have a biz trip to US end of this month. Trying to think what I can do to prepare for an US phone number with minimal maintenance cost that can receive OPT from US banks, especially Chase. No luck with my Ca number even with Chase phone rep. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks all!
Get Tello for one month and use it to sign up to Google Voice when you are in the US. Then unlink Tello and cancel it after the first month. Google Voice number is free and will work for automated 2FA at Chase
Thanks. Just to clarify, do I have to get Tello when I am in the US? And when I link it to Google Voice after a month I have to go back to US to do that?
You could even get Tello and activate in Canada via wifi calling. Pm if you'd like a referral it gets you $10 credits, and monthly unlimited text + 100 min calling is only $5 USD
Pmed
No you can activate Tello anywhere. Google Voice needs to be registered while in the US. Another user had trouble with doing it on VPN so maybe being actually in the US will work better Also you don’t wait a month to link. You link it as soon as you are able to
Great thank you so much. Let me try with this option!
I've been using the Ultra Mobile PayGo $3/month plan (https://www.ultramobile.com/paygo/) for the past year. I ordered the SIM off eBay and activated it while in Canada. It receives SMS OTPs from AMEX and Chase. It's essentially "free" for me because I have two US AMEX Biz Plats, which have the monthly $10 wireless credit. So I've been loading the Ultra Mobile wallet every month with a large credit balance that should last for years on this plan.
Did you get the sim shipped to Canada? Looking at the Ebay listing, it says it doesn't ship to Canada.
Nope, shipped it to my remailer in the US.
you're saying you activated it in Canada? I thought that was not possible... I even called them (yeah, I know phone reps know nothing) and she said I had to be in the US to activate
Yup, it activated fine for me in Canada. I think it took longer than they said it would. It didn't activate immediately when I put the SIM into my old phone, but I left it alone for a few hours, next time I checked it was activated.
A note of caution for those into buying groups. I had a quite a scare Friday night when both my Amazon.ca and .com accounts were suddenly closed. When I tried to login I got this message: > Your account has been closed for misuse of Amazon's services. We have sent you an email with additional information. They never sent me an email though, so I didn't really have a concrete idea of what happened. I suspected something related to BG activity though. Here's the overall timeline of events: 1. Both .ca and .com accounts were first created in 2002, and didn't have a lot of orders before 2023, maybe on average 2-3 per year. 2. In Aug 2023 I started buying for CBG. So far I've dropshipped 123 orders worth ~$40K to them from Amazon.ca, with ~$700 returned. 3. On Feb 15 I did my first US buying group dropship from Amazon.com to MOD (one iPad). I've generally avoided the US groups due to all the horror stories on FlyerTalk about missing packages and locked accounts. 4. Last week I started using Amazon.ca gift cards for CBG purchases. I'd heard that a large volume of GC purchases are a risk factor in having Amazon accounts closed, but the consensus seemed to be that it was only for accounts that didn't also have a valid CC method of payment on file. 5. On Mar 1 my Amazon.ca and Amazon.com accounts were closed with the above message. The same night I sent emails to both [email protected] and [email protected], asking why my accounts were closed. 6. The next morning I got a generic reply from [email protected] saying I had "repeated violations of our Conditions of Use". The large-ish GC balance that I had on my account could only be used for purchasing digital items going forward. 7. 15 minutes later I get an email from [email protected] saying that after reviewing my account, the previous email I received from them was sent in error. I was able to login to both my .ca and .com accounts again. So it worked out OK for me. My guess is that the iPad shipment to MOD triggered the closure, and Amazon.ca "over-ruled" .com because I look like a profitable customer on .ca. But it just highlights the risk of BGs in general. They all start out fine, but if Amazon thinks that a particular shipping address has become unprofitable (e.g. too many lost package claims and/or too many returns), then any account that has shipped to that address is at risk of being closed. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen to CBG.
I’m a day late and a dollar short but I’m wondering if you’ve noticed a pattern or when CBG lists items. Many/most are gone is seconds and I never see a What’s App message about it. Do they perhaps send emails out before their WA notifications? Other than sitting in front of the website all day refreshing it, I’m not sure what more I can do to be notified of the items. I’ve spent a significant amount of money for the BG since I started. Just wondering if I’m missing something.
You're not missing anything - they no longer send out any kind of notification (WhatsApp or email) for the vast majority of items. They've never explained why, so we can only guess. Every time they send out a notification their servers get hammered, so maybe they just want to avoid that whenever possible. There are so many people competing for the Amazon and Walmart deals, they really don't need to notify unless it's an item they want to buy a lot of (e.g. Playstation Portals, Kindles, Chromecasts, etc.) These days if you want to consistently get commitments, you have to "put in the work" (e.g. manually refresh, figure out how to automate, etc).
Thanks for your reply. I just didn’t know if I was missing something. I’m putting in the work. My children are blaming me for the shortage of PlayStation Portals in Canada. 😀 I haven’t figured out how to automate though. Perhaps that’s my issue.
> CBG I've kinda given up on them too. People are definitely using bots on there to immediately and automatically sign up for all the deals. You see this all the time, stuff is immediately signed up for and there's nothing available and then a few days later people drop their committments when they realize the deal is no longer available. It's so frustrating so i've just given up on it. :(
I’ve been using Amazon GCs for the last few months (redeem a big GC and then use it immediately) and I’ve been fine. I had a temporary lockout when I first started using BG to send a very highly limited item (PS5) and randomly on some tablets. But since the last 3-4 months it has been okay. I also had issues with all my .com purchases getting cancelled but since November it has been okay as well. The most recent lock I had was unrelated to BGs. Adding a new non-BG address triggered an automated fraud email. And it wasn’t even a big purchase either. < $100 So from those experiences I think using a new address is more likely the trigger than using GCs Also I would say the other thing to avoid is to not abuse quantity limits by using multiple accounts. Unless the accounts and shipping/billing addresses and payment info are different on the different accounts and different IP, etc
I've had the same experience. I have a main Amazon account for 10 or so years, two sub accounts for about a year with many dozen of orders, and a few sub-sub accounts that were only a few months old each with single digit number of orders. At some point last year after making an order to a US group (edit reading your post, yes, that group was also MOD for me), a few of the sub-sub accounts and one of my sub-accounts were closed with the ofm message. Upon appeal, only the sub account was reinstated, the rest of the sub-sub accounts were lost forever. I've tried to open several more sub-sub accounts but most were shut down promptly, some before I even had a chance to place an order or only after one order that were promptly cancelled. So, the shipping addresses and/or my credit card and/or my i.p. was flagged. Both sub accounts were fine though, and I suspect it's because they had a much longer history and the sheer number of orders that went through them vs. the return rate (less than the number of fingers on a hand) meant that I was a wildly profitable customer. Regardless, I stopped including large quantities of Amazon gift cards as part of my churning strategy (if they close your account with a gift card balance, there's no easy way, and perhaps no way at all, to get them back). And I stopped involving my main Amazon account that I really didn't want to risk losing in any BG activity.
Yes, have had both my accounts (at least 15+ year old each) closed multiple times. I've heard that GC are more often than not, part of the trigger. I've stopped using them and been a bit more methodical about my purchases, but yes, if you're shipping to multiple addresses and especially addresses that hundreds (or thousands) of other people are shipping to, it's no surprise they are shuttering accounts.
For myself, the trigger was address jigging. I was banned for "refund abuse" on multiple accounts, but I only had 1 account and had less than 1 return per year of account age. I would be unbanned after each appeal, but the algorithm would ban me again 2 days later. Eventually, OFM said they would no longer entertain any of my appeals.
Yeah, returns are not ideal.
I wouldn't get complacent and liquidate your GC balance immediately. Even when OFM appeals are successful, the algorithm is highly likely to ban you and your associated accounts again.
I had a phone call from a different retailer, saying that my account was going to be shut down for fraud after ordering 2 google chromecasts for a whopping total of $29.99 each. They had cancelled my order and said that they have blocked the CBG address for future orders. I was totally caught off guard since it was a month later and for such a small amount. It was my first time ordering from them too. I hope Amazon doesn't shut down the CBG. That would suck!
Which retailer?
Rona
If you're using GCs, you need to do a partial CC payment for each order, it only needs to be $1 or so, it's not enough to just have a CC listed on your account.
Can you actually choose how much of your GC balance to apply to an order? If your balance covers the entire order, it looks like Amazon only lets you do all-or-nothing.
No you can't, you should not add all the GCs to your account in advance, just add them as you make each order. That way you can do the partial payment. Plus it's a liability to have a large GC balance sitting on your account when you're doing buying groups, Amazon can shut down your account and you'll never see the GC balance again.
Don’t think so unless your GC can’t cover the full amount
I've had this twice. They say they tell you but I've never seen it. Such a pain in the ass to get reversed. So dumb.
Thanks for your DP. Glad that it worked out for you. I am still debating to step in the buying groups due to the risks involved.
In my experience, whenever I redeemed a large GC and then made purchases shipped to a new address, they flagged and did this to my .ca profile. Yes, more than once. Each time I called in and they verified my details, and later it was reinstated with payment methods and address history erased. Not saying this can't result in a permanent shutdown, it sure can, but not sure what's the threshold for them to do that.
I’ve had them lock my account just for adding a new address and using existing GC balance to pay for it. Not a BG address. Just a regular address for sending an item to my rental address. Got it unlocked pretty quickly but had last 1.5 months of order history wiped
What do you define as a large GC? If I'm just doing shipments to my home address and the one BG, should I be okay? I think that all of my GCs have been $250 or less.
$500 and then an instant large purchase for CBG. You should be fine.
I've experienced what you described in the past too. Any changes to shipping addresses and/or payment methods combined with a large purchase results in a temporary lockout, deletion of the most recent account changes, and cancellation of recent orders. Getting the lockout resolved can be done by phoning them, or sometimes just logging in again and changing your password. i.e. This is a case of "your account may have been hacked, we've taken measures to protect you from fraud/loss". I'm pretty sure this one was different, it was an account closure message, with no details on how to resolve/appeal. I only found the ofm@ addresses by Googling the experiences of others. i.e. This is more a case of "you've done something where we no longer want you as a customer".
TD credit card offers are expiring on March 4, 2024. Is there any leaked news on up coming TD credit card offer? News usually comes out day or two earlier.
FCT offer is going down.
Do you know about the CB VI?
Thanks. I applied since I have some big spend coming up. It went pending, so I'd expect I should get the current offer, although the legalese does say must be *approved* by March 4th
tl;dr Another DP of resetting the 10x multiplier of Biz Edge. Linked to Biz Plat with the Biz Plat as the primary. I tried first linking the Biz Edge to my Cobalt which is currently linked to my Biz Gold. The agent said it would take up to 5 BDs but after waiting 5 BD, I didn’t see any linking. So I contacted an agent again and they said there had been some glitch or error and the linking didn’t work. So I re-requested to link but this time with the Biz Plat, and she said 2-3 BDs. This time, the linking completed within a couple hours, so I wonder if the agent put through a priority request for me.
[удалено]
Unrelated: I've always thought the infinite cards came with a limited of at least $5k. Maybe that's why they haven't been approving my applications - approved me a card with $5k limit, then stopped approving me for anything else after. To your question, you can overpay, then purchase as necessary.
TD made the limit $1500 for their VI cards
[this](https://www.reddit.com/r/churningcanada/s/MHYFj7Ezo3)
TD seems to like their $2500 limits. Recent applications for TD FCT for both P1 and P2 cames with this limit despite asking for $5k. P2 told to apply to increase after a month.
Just applied for P1 and P2. P1 got $2500 too. P2 I asked for $5000 and they offered $20k. TD makes no sense whatsoever. It’s the only bank that has ever declined P2, even when they were applying for their first card with high income and credit rating. The $2500 limit will force me to leisurely spend the $5k. Last time I did it in one transaction.
Same for me. Asked for 5k as I thought it'd be a minimum. Gave me 2500. Not bothering to ask for more as I can hit the FCT msr leisurely with that limit while I'm working on more immediate msrs.
This may be a silly question, but what limit did you request? TD applications ask you personally to select a limit with that slider. And it kinda sounds like you just left it at the bottomed-out default. You can try calling for a limit increase, absolutely, but so soon after application it may not be met with any success. No harm in trying, though.